Word.ws English Dictionary

Laboya

Laboya proper noun: an Austronesian language spoken in the Sumba island in eastern Indonesia.

Proper noun

Laboya

  1. An Austronesian language spoken in the Sumba island in eastern Indonesia.
    • Moro in Laboya language means "Owner, master". The "Master of the feast" is a translation of the Indonesian "Tuan Pesta", a term which West Sumbanese use when they speak Indonesian. When speaking Laboya, different terms are used, according to the type of feast which is given.1987, Danielle Geirnaert, “Hunt Wild Pig and Grow Rice: On Food Exchanges and Values in Laboya, West Sumba (Eastern Indonesia)”, in Rob de Ridder, Jan A. J. Karremans, editors, The Leiden Tradition...
    • For example, in the Laboya language, which is spoken by a community who are neighbors of the Kodi in western Sumba, nyale is the word for "seaworms" while nare refers to an inedible kind of seaworm that Laboya people say causes an itchy reaction if eaten.2017, Cynthia T. Fowler, chapter 3, in Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Relationships and Environmental Variations in Indonesia, London: Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 48

Noun

Laboya pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) The speakers of the Laboya language.
    • Unlike Westerners, the Laboya prize animal fat more highly than the lean parts of the flesh, both in pigs and in buffalos.1987, Danielle Geirnaert, “Hunt Wild Pig and Grow Rice: On Food Exchanges and Values in Laboya, West Sumba (Eastern Indonesia)”, in Rob de Ridder, Jan A. J. Karremans, editors, The Leiden Tradition...
    • The Laboya say they are traditionally less eager to participate in the barter system (madara as the Laboya call it) than other West Sumbanese people.1992, Danielle C. Geirnaert-Martin, The Woven Land of Laboya: Socio-cosmic Ideas and Values in West Sumba, Eastern Indonesia, Leiden University, The Netherlands: Leiden University, →ISBN, page 10

Laboya meaning in Indonesian

Laboya in Indonesian

language
Lamboya

Forms of Laboya

alternative formLamboya

Origin of Laboya

From Laboya Laboya, from the de-prenasalization of earlier Lamboya.

Words formed from Laboya

Questions about Laboya

What does Laboya mean?
Laboya means an Austronesian language spoken in the Sumba island in eastern Indonesia.
What is Laboya in Indonesian?
Laboya in Indonesian is Lamboya. See Laboya meaning in Indonesian.
What part of speech is Laboya?
Laboya can be a proper noun or a noun.

Words near Laboya in the dictionary

  1. laboursome
  2. laboursomely
  3. Labov
  4. Labovian
  5. Laboy
  6. Laboya
  7. Laboyan
  8. Laboys
  9. labra
  10. Labrada
  11. Labradane

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Laboya (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

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